Downtown’s Underground announces addition of several new restaurants

underground atlanta announces addition of several new restaurants ~ what now, atlanta?
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Will these new eateries attract the Uptown crowd?

That’s where the “good” food is, so why would anyone head South for eats?

Unless you’re taking an out-of-town friend to the Hard Rock Cafe for novelty’s sake, there really aren’t many dining options Downtown worth risking your life over. And things get worse the further South you go.

But there’s hope. Underground Atlanta will welcome the addition of several new restaurants in March, 2011.

Footprints Jamaican Restaurant and Lounge, Georgia Peach Restaurant and Lounge, Subway and Le Restaurant Creole, will open at the development, come spring.

Jamaican food and reggae music at Footprints and Creole cuisine at Le Restaurant Creole and Nightclub and for southern fare, Underground will open Georgia Peach.

William P. “Chick” Ciccaglione, Underground Atlanta general manager, thinks the development has made extreme progress since it opened nearly four decades ago.

“We are constantly evolving as a community, and Underground Atlanta is proud to be able to change and bring in new events, stores and restaurants for the public to enjoy, while preserving what has made Underground Atlanta special for four decades.”

They might be bringing in “new events, stores and restaurants,” but are far off from bringing in any new customers. Especially for their new restaurants. Walking by a crime scene doesn’t increase an appetite.

Underground Atlanta
50 Alabama ST SW
Atlanta, Georgia 30303

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

25 Responses

  1. I would appreciate it if you would just report facts on developments (closings, openings). This site has recently devolved into conveying snarky, opinionated “reporting” that does no good. This is no longer a positive site.

  2. Underground Atlanta has been broke down for years now. The entire complex exists only as a tourist trap and yearly Peach Drop (with shootings, no less). Telling people any different is just not being honest.

  3. I agree with Midtownblue.

    I’m interested in the closings/openings, but really don’t care for your opinion on crime/success chances.

    Who are you to judge a neighborhood of the city? Why be so snarky about everything?

  4. “There really aren’t many dining options Downtown worth risking your life over.” – sounds like ignorant ranting from OTP to me.

  5. The recent violence at Five Points MARTA is going to bring on a lot of this kind of comment from people around the metro, I’m afraid. Just like the shooting many years ago that brought about the unfair Murder Kroger moniker, we’re going to see a terrible stigma attached to downtown now for years to come.

    As a resident of the Fairlie-Poplar neighborhood near the Five Points station — and a regular patron of nearby restaurants — I can assure you that you aren’t risking your life downtown any more than you are in Midtown when you visit a restaurant. The vagrants and panhandlers can be jarring if you aren’t used to seeing them, but I haven’t found them to be dangerous.

    RE: Underground Atlanta, it’s actually consistently busy on the weekends. I’ve visited a couple of times recently and was really surprised by the amount of foot traffic there. It’ll be interesting to see how these new restaurants do.

  6. I don’t know if many of you recall but when Underground Atlanta opened back up in the late 1980’s it was really quite nice. There were many full service restaurants as well as a fully leased food court with well known names. On the upper level and back around the food court there was a fair amount of upscale retail as well. Dantes Down the Hatch had reopened and Kenny’s Alley was quite crowded. A fair number of businesspeople from the state capitol as well as the surrounding state buildings came over for lunch. The World of Coke was also located at one of the entrances to Underground.

    Fast forward to 2011. Almost all of the well known shops in Underground are gone, replaced with gypsy carts and sub par dollar stores and fly by night merchants. World of Coke pulled up and left an empty abandoned building. If it weren’t for the fact that Atlanta still owes millions in bonds that they floated to build this place, it would have already closed.

  7. Actually there are lots of Downtown restaurant options and choices from high end places like BLT Steak and FAB to more casual spots on Broad Street. Check out http://www.atlantadowntown.com/fun/downtown-dining-district. Also you can go to this interactive map to see all the variety and options Downtown http://www.atlantadowntown.com/guide/dining. Downtown is one of the safest areas of our city, ‘there aren’t many dining options worth risking your life over’ is a statement that has not be relevant for almost 2 decades.

  8. Hey, I like the snarky and find it useful.

    There are plenty of other sites that list places and talk about how the food is. Some people appreciate knowing if the place is located in the middle of a crummy neighborhood, has bad parking, is difficult to access, smells funny or whatever.

    I’ve never seen any reason to enter Downtown. If, someday, this site found a restaurant that was worth it, I might take them seriously. And that’s purely due to the snark.

  9. Yeah, I like some snark, too, as long as it’s relatively justified. This particular post was a little unfair and came off as somewhat disconnected (no dining in downtown WHA??). But smart readers ought to be able to distinguish between fact and opinion without too much trouble.

  10. If you don’t like the updates on this site do one of three things:

    1) Start your own website
    2) Get this info from another site
    3) Don’t read it stupid

    Although, I don’t agree with all the comments I take it for what it is. Basically, a blog about openings and closings. Stop complaining about the content of this site. I happen to like the updates.

    That being said, Underground is ghetto as all can be. It is embarrassing when SEC Championship and Chick fil A (Peach) Bowl out of town fans are suckered into going there and think this is what Atlanta has to offer. I would never recommend it to a tourist and these restaurants will cater to hood crowd. Downtown has some great eats but, they are not or will not be in Underground anytime soon. I hope it changes and I am rooting for a different atmosphere.

  11. What about the young couple, just before Thanksgiving, held up at gun point and the boyfriend shot dead in the parking lot of their Virginia-Highland apartment complex? They weren’t even on the street. And in Virginia-Highland, of all places, a neighborhood conceived as trendy and safe.

    Crime is rampant in this city. Commenting about it is one thing, but influencing readers to not patronize an establishment because of the neighborhood stereotype is harmful. If that’s what you want to do, fine. But, I didn’t think that was the point of this site.

  12. They need to completely renovate and modernize Underground (the 80’s look is not cool) as well as have 1)Atlanta police or 2) their own security or 3) BOTH patrolling the area all day long. The lack of police presence and the run down look of Underground attracts crappy stores, restaurants and nightclubs which attracts the ghetto hood crowd. The heart of our Downtown shouldn’t look like Jamaica Avenue in Queens or the South Bronx. I would love to frequent Downtown/Underground more often but most restaurants along Broad Street don’t stay open at night and Underground as it is now is gross.

  13. You guys can tell that the person who writes this blog is an idiotic college student who just reads through business permits and puts all this “news” on his blog, saying whatever he wants because he was probably touched in bad places as a child…

    Right?

    I mean, come on. This blog and the other one this one whines about is the journalistic equivalent of roach p*ssy. I’m not reading this bull$hit anymore. Good luck to those new restaurants.

  14. I agree with MG. Good historic preservation needs to replace the 80’s strip mall aesthetic. The place looks dated and cheap. When the current mangement took over, they promised retail that appealed to the nearby residents and workers. I hope this is puts Underground on a path that fulfills that promise and makes it a place Atlantans can be proud of.

  15. The statement, “there really aren’t many dining options Downtown worth risking your life over,” is, I suppose, one person’s personal opinion, but it is quite frankly inaccurate, irresponsible and downright ridiculous. If this comment is based on what happened at the Five Points MARTA station on New Year’s, well then, don’t go to Virginia-Highland, Grant Park or Midtown either if you don’t want to risk your life. All of these areas and more have had high profile incidents in the last several months.

    As far as restaurants Downtown, I guess Peasant Bistro, Legal Sea Foods, BLT Steak, Lunacy Black Market, Social, FAB, etc… do not count as restaurants worthy of risking your life.

  16. I live nearby and go to the Underground fairly often. The Underground is one of the few places Downtown where you can still have a meal and a drink for less than 15 bucks after hours. I go to Ga Peach and Footprints often and they are both quality, family-owned, non-chain, establishments serving good food at a good price – you can get sit-down quality entrees and 2 sides out of both places for around 10 bucks.

    Everybody talks about how Downtown shuts down after 6 but the Underground proper is open til 9 and places like Scores, Ga. Peach, and Footprints are open even later. Decent price, locally owned, good (not spectacular, but solidly good) quality, open til 10 or 12ish during the week, I thought this was what we wanted Downtown.

    As for security, at no time have I ever felt unsafe at the Underground. Banana Wind certainly has a different clientele than hipsters or sophisticates – who I always hear preaching about diversity – may feel comfortable around, but they are no less rowdy than a crowd at Noni’s on a Saturday night.

    Take a trip down to Kenny’s Alley one evening and have a drink. Say hi to Che at Ga. Peach or Wesley at Footprints. Watch a game or sing some karaoke at Scores. You’ll be ok. Really.

  17. One person’s snark is another person’s cleverness, but I’m going to have to add to the chorus of “Hey, wait a minute” this time.

    Awful things happen to people in EVERY part of the city, but the next time a new restaurant opens in VA-Hi, Midtown, Buckhead or Grant Park (which have all been the scene of murders, robberies and assaults) It’s difficult to imagine someone suggesting that people won’t go there because they might die in the process. I live downtown, walk around it day and night and I’m still very much alive.

    Like Darin said, if you’re not used to it, seeing someone sleeping on the street or having someone walk up and ask you for money might be kind of alarming. But think about this: I drive very rarely so I find being in a car on an expressway, either as a driver or passenger) pretty nerve-wracking because people seem to be driving so fast and so carelessly. It seems *dangerous*, all those cars flying by each other with their operators sometimes paying attention to everything but the road.

    But most people who drive every day don’t spend the whole time terrified, looking at all the other cars in all the other lanes, expecting that one of them will, at any second do something to cause a deadly accident. But that happens every day. When was the last time there was ONE day with no car accidents on the news or in the traffic reports? A total of 420 were killed in traffic accidents in just 10 metro Atlanta counties in 2009. That’s probably at least 400 more than were murdered by strangers while walking somewhere, minding their own business. But you don’t hear people saying “Driving? Are you crazy? Do you know how many people get killed doing that? or “I haven’t been on a road in years and I have no intention of going near one. Way too dangerous.”

  18. Diversity doesn’t equal 99% black people… and they aren’t upper class black folks, they are the ghetto kind. Sorry, but somebody has to say it. Underground will never be a nice place until the ghetto people are gone.

  19. I remember a few years ago when I was new to the city and was looking up cheap rent. How foolish of me to even explore this area of town! I visited a converted hotel (can’t recall the name now, not even sure it’s still open) that was then apartments and it was right next to UG. Talk about creepy! Not to mention there was a sign on the door to the apartment building that said if you kept the door open longer than 10 seconds an alarm would go off. AND there was an armed security guard standing just inside. Wow…talk about a sign. Needless to say I didn’t live there. I think Underground should completely remodel and change the name. Sadly there’s too much of a stigma attached to it after 40 years. If the city wants to get serious about this area, they need to truly invest. But then again, it is right next to the judicial district so by nature that sets the tone…

  20. Wow. “risking your life over”; a bit strong, no? Why isn’t that rhetoric used whenever driving on the 285 top end is required to dine at a restaurant?* Underground is not awesome, needs a lot of change there, but this is a positive development and should be reported as such. Also, you should consider going to Lunacy Black Market etc, before you throw a blanket over all downtown eateries.

    *Someone was killed in 5 points MARTA station, granted. Do you know how many people die every weekend in Metro Atlanta on the Interstates? Three. About 150 per year, just in the interstates, just one the weekends (counting Friday night). Which is really the more dangerous transportation alternative.

  21. I resent the implication that in making the decision to head downtown is equal to “risking your life”. I live downtown and have for the past 4 years now. I’m very close to the HardRock, Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint and the Westin and I can tell you I have never had an issue, it’s NOT dangerous. I’d dare to say there are more dangerous areas in Midtown (i.e. Homepark!!!) I get so sick of people cringing at the idea that we head downtown to do ANYTHING, It’s still an area in transition, but many of us live, work and play here and we somehow manage to make it thru each day without being shanked in a dark alley. You should stick to the facts and not make comments about things you clearly don’t understand.

  22. But just as a side note…….I have to agree that Underground is ghetto and I really don’t venture that far south as I don’t find that there is really anything I want or need there anyway.

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